Pupils helping grow hope for cancer-free Tasmania

By
DAMITA LAMONT

HAVING ownership over fund-raising encourages pupils to keep up the good work.

EAGER TO HELP: Somerset Primary School pupils Montanna Butcher and Evan Ling with a
sample of merchandise they will be selling to raise funds for the Cancer Council on Daffodil Day
today. Picture: Grant Wells.

HAVING ownership over fund-raising encourages pupils to keep up the good work.

This is the case at Somerset Primary School, with the student council nominating the Cancer Council Tasmania and the Royal Guide Dogs Tasmania as the organisations to benefit from their fund-raisers throughout the year.

Student council joint presidents Evan Ling and Montanna Butcher, 12, are some of the pupils supporting the Cancer Council's annual Daffodil Day today by helping to man a stall in the Somerset shopping precinct.

Teacher Adrian Beard said celebrating and fund-raising for this day was a cause close to the pupils' hearts, as the school lost a favourite teacher's assistant earlier this year and several parents recently.

"We like helping people and we know this is going to a good cause," Evan said.

Mr Baird said pupils had been visited by the two organisations they support so they could gain insight into where money raised was spent.

"It is good for them to see the money go to a particular cause and not just disappear," he said.

"As there is only one bus that allows people to travel for [cancer] treatment, this is not enough, and students hope that their fund-raising helps to get a second bus."

Cancer Council Tasmania CEO Penny Egan said Daffodil Day was one of the organisation's biggest fund-raisers.